Fair Games
What games are suitable for Villages Fetes, School Fairs and the like?
We have quite a few good ideas for traditional games that are ideal for school fetes and summer fairs.
Coconut Shy
Obviously
there's the coconut
shy - seen at all fairgrounds everywhere! We sell coconut shy balls
but you'll need to rig up a backdrop and also provide the poles and the
cups to hold the coconuts in. For poles, one suggestion is to use lengths
of standard 3/4 inch gas pipe. If it will be children throwing, you might
want to just balance the coconuts straight on top of the pole without
a cup to make it easy for them.
Aunt Sally
Along
similar lines, the Oxfordshire pub game Aunt
Sally, is another good idea for a fair. We sell the doll, swivel iron,
sticks and a special Aunt Sally backdrop. The backdrop is quite expensive
and requires a frame to be made so is more for serious Aunt Sally players.
However, if you can hang up an old carpet or sheet of some kind, then
the only other piece of equipment needed is a pole and again, a length
of 3/4 inch gas pipes is ideal for this purpose...
Knur and Spell
Less
well known but equally suitable for a village fete or other public event
like this is the sport of Knur and
Spell. In this game, a ball is balanced on a little see-saw called
a Spell or Trap and this is used to shoot the ball up into the air whereupon
it is bashed as hard as possible down the field.
It's just a case of who can hit it the furthest so for a school fete, you might want to have a competition for each age-group and present the winner with a prize at the end of the day.
We sell the necessary Bat, Trap
and Ball and all you need is a large open area and someone to fetch
the balls!
Skittles
There
is nothing quite like the sight of a Skittles alley or Skittles table
to generate a bit of enthusiasm amongst adults and youngsters at any event
- everyone wants to have a go. James Masters, the owner of Masters Traditional
Games, takes his Northamptonshire
Skittles table along to the local school's summer fair and it's usually
the most popular stall. A Skittles Table is ideal for a fair, indoors
or outdoors, because you don't need to construct anything to catch the
pins, balls or cheeses and it's less effort to reset the pins each time.
That said, a Skittles Table is very expensive so normal alley
skittles are a more common and practical option for most fairs. 
Bear
in mind that the pin diamond will need to have a backdrop of straw bales
or some other wall to catch the pins and balls/cheeses and you will also
need a "sticker" - a volunteer to reset the pins after each
turn...
Finally, the game can be played on grass as long as there aren't too many bumps but the flatter the surface, the better the result will be. You might wish to consider playing Long Alley skittles where instead of rolling balls, the balls or cheeses are hurled the length of the alley directly onto the pins. That way, you won't need to worry about the alley surface at all.
Skittles has been played at English summer fairs since at least the thirteenth
century!
Quoits
Another idea that is provenly successful at a fair is the game of Quoits.
Real
steel quoits is the most traditional option but they are really heavy
and only suitable for adults. (Proper Steel Quoits are played using clay
pits but "Sward Quoits" is just the same game with the target
stake stuck into a a lawn or other grassy area). They make a great spectacle
and a crowd of spectators will soon gather so safety must be the first
priority. The game is usually played with 2 ends and 2 players but it's
easy to convert this to a single stake and some kind of competition for
the person who get the best score.
Where
there will be children or where steel quoits are otherwise inappropriate,
we sell a variety of excellent wooden rope
quoits games. You can buy either the version with the wooden base
or if the ground is earth or sand a version with a stake that sticks into
the ground.
Buy a pair of games to set up a proper game of quoits whereby players play backwards and forwards between the stakes or buy a single one for a fair stall.
Roller Ball
Roller
Ball is yet another ancient game that has been revamped into a modern
form. Just roll the balls and try to get them through the highest scoring
arches. Jaques sell two version of it - the Giant version should be great
for a fair...
Sjoelbak (Dutch Shuffleboard)
While the full game of Sjoelbak takes too long for a fair stand, it isn't too difficult to come up with a cut-down version that is suitable.
Here is our recommendation: Use 12 discs, 2 rounds with a prize for the winning score. The scoring principle is the same as the full game but with 12 discs the maximum score is 60 points (and with only two rounds any score over 20 points is good!)
To maximise fund raising potential put 2 Dutch shuffleboards side by side with a chair/controller/scorer in between. This also increases competition as you can have friends, husbands/wives etc. playing against each other at the same time.
Do Let us know if you think there's something missing from this list.
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